Amanda Seyfried Says She Passed on a TV Series Because It Had Lots of Sex Scenes: ‘I’m Not Into It Right Now’

For one beloved Hollywood star, filming love scenes no longer holds the same appeal it once did. She also shared a sweet lesson about saying "no" that came from an unexpected source: her daughter.

Amanda Seyfried is opening up about how her priorities have shifted over the course of her career, including the kind of work she's now willing to take on. The "Mean Girls" actress, 40, recently disclosed that she turned down a series role because of the sheer number of sex scenes it required.

Seyfried made the admission during a panel hosted by Alec Baldwin at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 4. During the conversation, the "Dear John" star explained that her feelings about portraying on-screen intimacy have changed considerably over the years.

"Our jobs are weird," she said to Baldwin, 68. "And as I get older, it gets weirder. We have to be romantic with people that we're not romantic with. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's really uncomfortable."

"But I can't believe back in the day I was just like, 'We gotta make out. Great! This is awesome. I know how to make out,'" she joked. "And it used to be so fun. It was a non-thing. It was like, 'I get to make out with a hot person today … And they're paying me.'"

Today, the scenes she used to enjoy are exactly what keep her from signing on to some roles. "I passed on a show where I would have to have sex all the time because of the sex," the Oscar nominee said.

"Doesn't matter [who it's with] ... I don't wanna do it. I'm uncomfortable with it. I'm not into it right now. Maybe if [the project] came along again [at a later point], maybe I'd be in a different space. But I don't wanna deal with being naked with a stranger," she continued.

Seyfried also pointed to another change that has come with age: she's become much more comfortable setting boundaries and saying "no."

"I have kids now who are paying attention to what I do," Seyfried, who shares daughter Nina, 9, and son Thomas, 6, with estranged husband Thomas Sadoski, said. "And so I have to be less of a pushover."

The actress then recounted a recent outing that put her new approach to the test.

She continued, "The other day — this is so silly — but Nina, my daughter, and I were walking across the street [in Manhattan] … and a person on our side of the street asked for a picture, and I looked at my daughter, and I said, 'No, I'm sorry.' And then we walked across the street and I was like, 'How was that for you, Nina? Was that okay?'"

"She's like, 'I'm very proud of you, mama,'" Seyfried recalled. "And then we go to the coffee shop, and the coffee shop barista was like, 'Can I have a picture?' And I was like, 'No, I'll come back later.' My daughter's like, 'I'm so proud of you for saying no.' And I was, 'What the [expletive]? She shouldn't be saying this to me. I should be saying no.'"

These days, Seyfried added, her rule is simple: "[If] I'm with my kids, I say no … whatever [they are] going through is more important than what I'm going through."

On the professional front, Seyfried currently stars in "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd," directed by Tim Blake Nelson. The film screened at the Hamptons festival two weeks after its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In the movie, the actress takes on the role of a teacher in an abusive relationship who starts working at a maximum-security prison and soon develops feelings for a magnetic inmate.